Big As Your Head Oat, Pecan and Orange Cookies

My kids eyes bugged out when they saw a stack of giant cookies on the kitchen bench when they came home from school. They must have thought all their Christmas's had come at once, until I told them they had to share one between the two of them because it was so close to dinner time. Then is was a matter of serious negotiations. There was lots of measuring and weighing and eye-balling sizes and discussions about who owned what territory and what compromises each had to make. It was like listening to a couple of politicians.




Big As Your Head Oat, Pecan and Orange Cookies
adapted from here
Makes 10

130g (1/2 cup) mejool dates, pitted and roughly chopped
2 tablespoons orange juice
300g (2 cups) plain (all -purpose) flour
180g (2 cups) traditional rolled oats
60g (1/2 cup) finely chopped pecans
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
150g (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
125ml (1/2 cup) maple syrup
330g (1/1/2 cups) golden caster sugar
250ml (1 cup) cream
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

Preheat the oven to 160C (325F). Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Set aside.

Put the dates and orange juice into a processor and blitz until you have a smooth paste. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, pecans, orange zest, ginger and cinnamon and stir to combine. Set aside.

Put the butter, maple syrup, sugar, cream and vanilla seeds into a medium saucepan over medium heat and stir until everything is melted together. Bring to the boil and cook for about 6 minutes - we are effectively making butterscotch here. Pour the butterscotch mixture over the oat mixture. Add the date and orange puree and stir the lot together to combine.

Working in batches, dollop 1/2 cups of the mixture onto the trays and spread to form a thin 18 cm circle. I used an 18 cm tart ring to shape the cookies. Allow room for the cookies to spread a little.

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden. Leave to cool completely on the trays.